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Susan Gleason

“Manning Up” Debated

“Why Manning Up is the Worst Thing to Do” Health Issue, Winter 2016

Mark Greene’s take on masculinity (“Why Manning Up Is the Worst Thing to Do”) sent some sparks flying. Quoting Greene: “If you’ve grown up in the United States, then you’re familiar with the Man Box, the long-standing rules of how to walk, talk, and sound like a man in America.”

While commenters across social media (including a lively discussion in Reddit’s MensLib section) were generally appreciative of Greene’s insights...

“This is an important message for all men, across the range of experience. Men need to be encouraged that there is strength in vulnerability.” —reader Stephen Dynako

...others were unconvinced:

“If we lived in a society where being timid and emotional was lavishly rewarded, the ‘how to be a man’ advice would be all about how to be the most emotional, least dominant, least confident, least breadwinning man out there. The very second major corporations start hiring and promoting men like this and women start throwing themselves at them and the world starts praising them, we can start advising men to be more ‘healthy’ like this. But today, if you advise your sons to be less traditionally masculine, you’re doing [them] a huge disservice. My job as a parent is to teach my kids how to be successful under the current system.” —reader NCOS

Mark Greene is responding to reader comments on the YES! website. Search “Manning Up” if you’d like to join the conversation.

#MyClimateMoment

During the climate talks in Paris last December, news media were filled with stories about complicated international negotiations and frightening climate data. Our coverage tracked the policy solutions and climate science as well but also included many marginalized voices: indigenous-rights leaders, women, and local communities working to shift away from a fossil-fuel-based economy.

But we know that climate change gets personal too. And we wanted to hear about it. We asked readers, “When did climate change get urgent, deep, and personal for you?”—and the thoughtful, wry, often heartbreaking responses came pouring in on Twitter and Facebook with the #MyClimateMoment hashtag.

For many readers, climate change became personal when they had children; for others, it’s playing a role now in deciding whether to become parents. Many readers have been moved by dire and compelling reporting:

Contributors

Life After Oil

Bill McKibben

Bill McKibben is a leader in the climate movement. As the author of The End of Nature in 1989 and the co-founder of 350.org nearly 20 years later, McKibben has helped educate millions about the need to change our oil-dependent lifestyles to save the planet. He won the Right Livelihood Prize in 2014, as well as the Gandhi Prize and the Thomas Merton Prize in 2013. McKibben lives in Vermont, where he is the Schumann Distinguished Scholar of Environmental Studies at Middlebury College.

Derrick Jensen

Derrick Jensen is a grassroots environmental activist and author of more than 20 books, including A Language Older Than Words, Endgame, Dreams, and most recently The Myth of Human Supremacy. He holds a B.S. in mineral engineering physics from the Colorado School of Mines and an M.F.A. in creative writing from Eastern Washington University. He lives in a redwood forest between a pond filled with northern red-legged frogs, Pacific tree frogs, and rough-skinned newts and a stream filled with coho salmon and Pacific lampreys.

Terrance Hayes

Terrance Hayes is the author of How To Be Drawn, a finalist for the 2015 National Book Award, and Lighthead, winner of the 2010 National Book Award. His other books are Wind in a Box, Hip Logic, and Muscular Music. His honors include a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a 2014 MacArthur Fellowship. He lives with his family in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

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